Nope. I'm not granting them the shield of good intentions anymore. Greens don't care whom they hurt in the pursuit of their idea of religious perfection any more than Islamic fascists do. Case in point:

Tonight, PBS will air "Gold Futures," a film by Hungary's Tibor Kocsis. The film focuses on residents in Romania's Rosia Montana, a rural Transylvanian town, who are divided over the benefits of a proposed gold mine. It also features Gabriel Resources, the Canadian mining company trying to convince them to relocate so it can dig for a huge gold deposit estimated at 14.6 million ounces, worth almost $10 billion. PBS describes the film as a "David-and-Goliath story."

While the film gives time to supporters and opponents of the mine, it leaves unsaid that half of the villagers voicing opposition have now either sold their homes or will not have to move, because they live in a protected area where the village's historic structures and churches will be preserved. Viewers who see pristine shots of the Rosia valley won't realize the hills hide a huge, abandoned communist-era mine, leaking toxic heavy metals into local streams--or that while the modern mining project will level four hills to create an open pit, it will also clean up the old mess at no cost to the Romanian treasury. ...

Mr. McAleer, a former Financial Times journalist who has followed the mine battle for seven years, says he "found that everything the environmentalists were saying about the project was misleading, exaggerated or quite simply false." He produced his film on a shoestring $230,000 budget largely provided by Gabriel Resources, but says he was given complete editorial control.

The Gabriel funding caused environmental groups to label the film "propaganda" and demand the National Geographic Society cancel plans to rent its Washington, D.C., theater to the free-market Moving Picture Institute for a screening. The Institute notes opponents rarely challenge the film's facts. As for Mr. Kocsis's documentary, his Flora Film corporate Web site lists as its partners Greenpeace, the Hungarian Ministry of Environment and the George Soros-backed Energy Club of Hungary, all of which oppose the Romanian project on either environmental or nationalistic grounds (Transylvania used to be part of Hungary). ...

"Local opposition to the mine is strong and organized" says a statement signed by 80 environmental groups in January.

In his letter, Mr. Soros cites a recent poll organized by some members of Romania's parliament that "found 90% of respondents rejecting the project." But the poll turns out to be an unscientific Internet survey, and one of the environmental groups Mr. Soros funds urged people outside Romania to participate in it. What is clear: Two-thirds of Rosia Montana's people have accepted Gabriel's voluntary offer to buy their homes at above market rates....

Mr. McAleer tells me such encounters should wake up people "who, like myself, unquestionably believed environmentalists were a force for good in the world."... (emphasis added)

If the gold mine goes ahead, then the toxic mess from the old communist mine will be cleaned up. If not, then it won't be. Yet those labeled Greens oppose the mine. Why do you think that is?

The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries’ GDP. What follows, is this slightly misleading map – misleading, because the economies both of the US states and of the countries they are compared with are not weighted for their respective populations.

Pakistan, for example, has a GDP that’s slightly higher than Israel’s – but Pakistan has a population of about 170 million, while Israel is only 7 million people strong. The US states those economies are compared with (Arkansas and Oregon, respectively) are much closer to each other in population: 2,7 million and 3,4 million.

And yet, wile a per capita GDP might give a good indication of the average wealth of citizens, a ranking of the economies on this map does serve two interesting purposes: it shows the size of US states’ economies relative to each other (California is the biggest, Wyoming the smallest), and it links those sizes with foreign economies (which are therefore also ranked: Mexico’s and Russia’s economies are about equal size, Ireland’s is twice as big as New Zealand’s). Here’s a run-down of the 50 states, plus DC:

Lots of fun facts there for the geographically minded. Such as: Mexico's GDP is about the same as Russia's? I had no idea. France is as big, GDP-wise, as California? I'd thought California much bigger than that. Florida = South Korea? I guess we do get a little work done down here in the Sunshine State.

Edwards wants to repeal them right now. Obama has already spent them. Does anyone remember what the allowing the Bush Tax Cuts to come back to life would mean? George Will:

The five income tax brackets (10, 25, 28, 33 and 35 percent) will be increased 50, 12, 10.7, 9.1 and 13.1 percent, respectively, to 15, 28, 31, 36 and 39.6 percent. The child tax credit reverts to $500 from $1,000. The estate tax rate, which falls to zero in 2009, will snap back to a 60 percent maximum, and exemptions that have increased will decrease. The capital gains rate will rise, and the marriage penalty will be revived, as will the double taxation of dividends.

Dem's & Lefties have been moaning about the "tax cuts for the rich" for so long now that alot of folks just believe it. But if you look at that paragraph above, there's a really good chance that you're in it. YOU, my friend, and your friends and neighbors, are going to get creamed if the Bush Tax Cuts are allowed to expire.

And the Democrats have all publicly and repeatedly condemned the Bush Tax Cuts.

Have a kid? Are you married? Do you have a job? Are you going to inherit anything in the next couple of decades? Own stocks or mutual funds? Have a pension? Or do you plan on having any of those happy conditions at any time in your life? If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, then the Dem's have promised to increase your taxes. There is no doubt that they would make good on such a promise. They will try to sell it as taxes for the rich, but me and the rest of us on the Right will be here to let folks know how they're being swindled.

You can count on us.

There's a lot the President has not done to my satisfaction, but this time-delayed IED of expiring tax cuts is one of his greatest tricks. It is going to go off right under the up-armored HUMVEE of the Democrat campaign. I love it when a plan comes together.

I suppose I should be grateful the State of Florida is discussing ways to cut my taxes, rather than lower them. It's just that there were a couple of really good ideas out there a few months ago, and now a rather lame and complicated scheme is coming out on top.

Public Enemy #1: Susan Latvala.

"You always fear the worst, but I'm pleasantly surprised and optimistic," said Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala, who as president of the Florida Association of Counties has been a leading voice against drastic tax reductions.

It galls me to hear a public official faced with the specter of tax cuts wail about impossibility. Bull. Susan, you did in fact run the County 5 years ago on the 2002 budget, and you could again. Susan, you're a nice lady to meet at a cocktail party, but you're ruining people's lives with your heavy taxes. You're more like a Sheriff of Nottingham than a county commissioner.

The plan has two major components. One is a rollback of tax revenues for local governments, and the other is a sharp expansion of the state's homestead exemption...

It was commercial landowners, snowbirds and landlords who cried the loudest last summer for a break in property taxes because their bills have risen fastest. Yet, almost two-thirds of the new savings go to homesteaders...

And there were new fears Friday about cuts to local school budgets. While Pruitt and Rubio pledged to hold schools harmless in the tax deal, the proposal would cut school budgets by $7.1-billion over the next five years. Lawmakers will have to find a way to replace that money.

"This is very unsettling and gives us a queasy feeling," said Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association. "It's kind of 'trust us' deal."

The biggest challenge politically will be winning approval in the Legislature for the new "super" homestead exemption. Tinkering with the homestead exemption, available only to primary residences, means changing the state Constitution. That requires a three-fourths majority in the House and Senate, plus voter approval.

Under the proposal released Friday, the current $25,000 flat exemption would be replaced by a system that provides a 75 percent exemption on the first $200,000 in home value. The next $300,000 would get an additional 15 percent exemption. So a home valued at $400,000 would be taxed on only $220,000.

A minimum exemption of $50,000 would be guaranteed.

Longtime homeowners who already have especially low tax bills because of the Save Our Homes cap on annual assessments would be allowed to keep their existing tax bill...

Aside from the local government rollback, businesses get relatively few benefits, including an exemption of $25, 000 in taxes on equipment.

The local government tax rate rollback will be easier to enact because it requires only a straight majority vote of the Legislature before being sent to the governor. Under the proposal, property tax revenues for city and county budgets for the coming fiscal year 2007-2008, which begins Oct. 1, would freeze at the current year's level.

Each local government would also have to make additional cuts to their property tax revenues of either 3, 5, 7 or 9 percent, depending on how much they had raised taxes between 2001 and 2006.

The rollback plan would generate an average saving for all property owners of about 6 or 7 percent in the first year.

Future tax revenue growth would be capped by the rate of personal income growth and population in a city or county. City and county elected officials could break the limitations through a supermajority vote...

The problems with this plan are:

It's not enough.

It's not fair.

1.) Local governments are not being forced to take any significant cuts. 7%? give me a break. Latvala, her cronies and fellow fool travelers have been on a spending spree of Neronic orgiastic proportions. 7%? Latvala has raised local spending 75% over the past 5 or so years. The idea of capping spending at this year's budget level is outrageous and misses the point entirely. Those fools need to be forced to CUT SPENDING.

2.) Taxes should be paid by every one. They should be spread fairly. They should bear some relationship to what they cost. As with the existing tax system, the new proposal would have it so that two identical condominiums, side by side in the same complex, could have vastly different tax bills because one is lived in full-time and the other only seasonally. Guess who pays a lot more? The seasonal one. That's what the "homestead" is all about, and it's grossly unfair. Same with business properties.

People are starting to leave the state, especially snow birds and businesses who have choices. They have been royally screwed by rising taxes in the last few years, and this proposal does nothing to fix that. If they should start leaving in great numbers, and should their exodus create falling property values, I wonder what Susan Latvala would do then?

Yesterday, news that Toyota sold more cars and trucks than General Motors for the first time in the January-March quarter stunned Americans. With Americans buying more cars and trucks than anyone else, it takes some time for the shock to sink in. Our great General Motors has been pushed into second place by a foreign car maker. What would our fathers have thought?This is one result of globalization and world-wide competition.

In the old days, of the British (1888 to 1914) and American (1945 to 1989) hegemony, most high value added goods were manufactured in the industrialized countries and sold to the rest of the world at great profit. Trades unions in the so-called developed “Western” world exerted their great political power of a “job franchise” to seize massive benefits for their employees, particularly guaranteed pensions. These added greatly to corporate overhead. These same trade unions also used their power to resist the advent of technology in favor of job protection. This kept production costs high. In addition, high-spending governments increasingly passed the burden of their social policies to the corporate sector.

Due to increasing competition from foreign owned companies, American auto producers were unable to pass on the massive financial burden — of increased worker benefits and government obligations — to customers. Instead, they cut back on quality, including design. Soon, they began to lose market share, even domestically, to foreign competitors. With the collapse of Communism in the late 1980s, a new wave of globalization hit the world. This time, millions of people, who worked extremely hard for a fraction of Western wages, entered the producer market. They were often financed by Western capital. Much of the old Western world has been slow to meet this new competitive challenge, by deep restructuring. Germany is one example of a Western country that has accepted much of the political agony of some deep restructuring. In February of this year, Germany displaced America as the world’s largest exporter. More recently, in March, China pushed America into third place.

Today’s announcement of Toyota displacing General Motors as the leading auto maker, is another vivid example of the massive erosion, even of our American domestic markets, by foreign competition. It should serve as a major wake-up call to Congress to reduce government regulation and to encourage the major restructuring of our corporate and government practices. It even begs the question of whether America is currently prepared for continued globalization.We believe that America will adapt to the new globalization, but it will take time. In the present dire circumstances, the prospect of a Democratic President does not bode well in the short-term.

We continue to urge those of our readers who hold equities, to increase their emphasis on overseas allocations.

Not that GM is any paragon of brilliance, but what is this - Atlas Shrugged?

The overall savings under Crist's plan are double what the Senate proposed but are smaller than the House's projections of at least $47-billion (Says who? - THC). But it does not involve raising the state sales tax to mitigate huge cuts to local budgets, as House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-Miami, has sought...

- Rolling back local government tax bases to 2003. That would save taxpayers an average of $340 next year, and $1,987 over five years. Schools, water management districts and hospital districts would not be affected.

- Doubling the homestead exemption to $50,000.

- Save Our Homes portability. Homeowners could carry the accrued benefits of the 3 percent cap on annual assessments to new homes.

- A 25 percent tax reduction for first-time home buyers.

This is getting interesting, and promising.

As of now, all three plans call for a major roll back of local government taxes, and all three are based on a date, not a dollar amount or a percentage. That is very interesting. The argument is all about which date to use. Governor Crist is shading toward the Senate's date, but not by much. I think we can expect a roll back to '02 or '03.

Doubling the homestead exemption is pure Senate. Under the House version there would be no exemption because there would be no property tax at all on homestead properties. That's where the Houses increase in the sales tax % comes in. I prefer the house version, myself, but I acknowledge some provision needs to be made for renters.

Save Our Homes portability is huge, and all three versions - I think - have it. Without that the intrastate real estate market is paralyzed. For instance, empty nesters who want to move out of their three bedroom two and a half bath houses into something smaller cannot afford to because they're facing such a huge increase in property taxes -- an increase that makes no sense at all when you think about it. But even if they decide not to bring portability to Save Our Homes, they need to make that definite immediately -- right now nobody is moving because nobody wants to be the last one to be screwed by the change if it happens.

As for the 25% reduction for first time home buyers, I don't get it. Why should they get a special break? We ALL need and deserve a break.

Striking out to claim the lead in solving one of the state's highest-profile problems, the Florida House on Wednesday proposed eliminating property taxes for homeowners and imposing revenue caps that would strip billions from local government budgets.

House Republicans want to scratch property taxes on all primary residences. Instead, the state sales tax would be increased by 2.5 cents per dollar- subject to voter approval....

The House plan is divided into several parts. The first calls for the Legislature to vote this spring to limit property tax collections by local governments, effectively imposing a cap on government spending.

A baseline would be established by rolling back property taxes to 2000-2001 levels, before the real estate market took off, and adjusting by a formula on population growth and inflation. Any new revenue collected after that would be limited by the same formula. A county commission or city council could go above the cap, but only by unanimous vote....

Wow. This is such a great idea no one I've talked to about it this morning thinks it has a snowball's chance in hell. But you never know... stranger things have happened and we have a shiny new governor eager to earn his spurs. Of course, someone's ox is going to be gored...

Cities and counties, however, say a cap could have a crippling effect, triggering cuts in essential services and public projects.

"Most of our budget goes to police, fire and parks and recreation," said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio. "We have to be careful that across-the-board, statewide cuts do not affect our delivery of basic services."

So, Mayor Iorio is saying that, way back in the dark ages of 2001, the City of Tampa was so cash-strapped it couldn't provide police, fire, and parks? Sorry, madame mayor, but that's hooey. What's happened is y'all government types took all the incredible windfall money and blew it. As usual. Why shouldn't you be able to get the job done with a budget adjusted to inflation and population?

If this passes, and I have a flutter in my gut telling me it will, then lo and behold the Cities and Counties will find a way to make ends meet after all.

Man, this could be so great. (emphasis added)

If you live in Florida, let your Representative, Senator, and Governor know what you think about these ideas. I just did.

I'm really more interested in what's been happening with consumer confidence. While there's been plenty of talk about growing income inequality and worker angst–often by me–Americans have been getting more optimistic. Here are the key takeaways from today's University of Michigan consumer confidence survey, via the good folks at Global Insight:

1) The survey catapulted to a two-year high of 96.9 in January, up from 91.7 in December.

2) Sentiment for current economic conditions scaled up by 3.2 points to 111.3.

None of this should really be too surprising, with the economy climbing at a 3.4 percent clip last year (including 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter), jobs growing by nearly 200,000 a month, wages increasing more than 4 percent, and real disposable personal income rising more than twice as fast as in 2005. Even better, the Federal Reserve looks as if it's stuck on pause in fiddling with interest rates.

The historical average for tax revenues as a percentage of GDP for the last 45 years—roughly, the span of the modern taxation era—is 18.2%; in 2006, the government collected 18.4% of GDP as tax revenues. Even if you throw out the Bush budgets of 2002-2006, the average rises only a tenth of a percent, meaning that America is still above its historical average. The same holds true for budget deficits. The historical average is 1.6% with the Bush years, 1.5% without, making last year's 1.8% budget deficit look less than outlandishly out of line.

The interesting thing is that no one knows these happy facts. Democrats are still harping on budget deficits as if (a cynic would say "because") they were a gigantic mess, rather than a shrinking problem. This is not an excuse for running deficits, of course; there is no reason that a prosperous nation should be borrowing money to run its government when the economy is booming. But America's budget deficit is small enough that it is now unlikely to be having any sort of measurable effect on the economy, and inflation and economic growth will quickly erode the value of recently accumulated debt. Mr Bush may leave a large number of problematic legacies for future generations, but the revenue shortfalls of recent years will not be noticed among them.

No doubt this will have little impact on the don't-bother-me-with-the-facts crowd.

The Speculist has an interesting take on a request from Detroit for federal funding into battery research, batteries being "the weakest link in the tech chain leading to electric cars." First, the background argument from FuturePundit:

$25 million a year [what our government currently spends on battery research] is chump change. Even $100 million per year [what the automakers want] isn't much. The article reports a claim by a spokesman for GM that Japan and other East Asian countries are spending a few hundred million dollars to subsidize the development of battery technologies in order to give their automakers a competitive advantage.

Given the current $3 billion per week burn rate for US forces in Iraq (which understates total costs since deaths and disabilities will cost us far into the future) the $100 million per year proposed above would pay for 6 hours of the US expenditures in Iraq. 6 hours. We could defund Muslim fundamentalists if we developed cleaner and cheaper replacements for oil and we'd raise our living standards in the process.

Fossil fuels usage brings big external costs in the form of pollution. We are better off accelerating the development of technologies that'll reduce and eventually eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

At first I was inclined to poo poo the cost comparison to the war in Iraq. I'm generally against federal funding of anything. And besides, everything is cheaper than war -- that's one reason war is a last resort. And besides, what does that have to do with the price of cheese in Afghanistan? But then I got it. Gaining energy independence from the despots sitting on giant pools of oil would cut the legs out from under them. The drive toward energy indepence should be seen as one front in the war on terror and, hence, worthy of federal funding. If all we need to drive is electricity, then we can get that electricity from nuclear power, something we could have in abundance if we just kicked the BANANAs to the curb. And, oh yeah by the way, it would lead to a huge leap in productivity and wealth for all of us.

I hate arguments made with anecdotal evidence.But since everyone likes their own anecdotes, why should I be any different?

I don’t have a Medical Savings Account, but I do have catastrophic health insurance.It’s just like regular health insurance except I have to pay the first $5,000 of medical expenses per year out of pocket.That makes me sensitive to medical pricing.Indeed, it makes me a bit too reluctant to get medical treatment sometimes, I admit it.I’m tight.

However, I’m a 46 year old man with 66 year old knees that could not be neglected any longer.Today I bit the bullet and, with the help of a Doctor friend who gave me a ‘scrip, I went shopping for two MRI’s.I called 12 radiology clinics. The price for an MRI for a “regular” patient, that is, one with insurance, averages $1,183 per knee.The best price for a cash patient like me is $375.

That’s a savings of $808 or 68%.

Not all medical procedures are as competitive as MRI’s, but still… 68%?I’m more firmly convinced than ever that Medical Savings Accounts are the way to go.

Seen at low tide

HummingbirdFinally, my first hummingbirds. Saw them on a fire bush in Crystal Beach, FL. My rental's neighbor's yard is all xeriscaped, which is ugly to me but just fine with the little hummers. At first, I thought they were the biggest hornets I'd ever seen.

Flamingo!One of these dudes flew right over my house. I couldn't believe it. And please don't tell me it was a roseated spoonbill because it was a frickin' flamingo, dude! Huge and pink and right there above me. I was like so freaking out, you know?

Black SkimmerThese beauties are getting scarce, but one flew by yesterday at low tide on the hunt for minnows.

Dead sea turtlecool, but smelly

Reddish EgretThese have been hanging out around the pool quite a bit lately. Must be a new group of adolesent birds -- the youngsters like to hunt where the water is clear, and it takes them a day to figure out there are not now and never will be fish in the swimming pool no matter how clear the water.

Sand Piper

Brown PelicanI saw a flock of about 200 of these at Disappearing Island yesterday, just south of Anclote Island on the west coast of FL. Good to see such a large flock.

Wood PeckerThey've developed a sudden interest in the orange tree, which just went into bloom.